Retirement Planning

If you’ve got aging parents as well as children of your own to look after, you’re part of the “sandwich generation”. You may want to ensure secure future for both your parents and your kids, the stress of juggling these responsibilities can become overpowering. Retirement is becoming more expensive every day, but have your parents been investing for it?

Hi! Please share

What do you do in the wake of a personal devastation? How would you heal from the shock, pain, fear, and anger of a sudden loss? In this blog post, I hope you will find a sense of security, or even inspiration as you walk with me on my path this past year. Sudden misfortune creates strong emotions, and opportunities. Preparing for the death of a loved one overlaps with preparing for a loss after a divorce, a close family member, relationship, or a significant financial loss of any kind through litigation, job loss, or from a stock market crash. Emotional preparation has limitations, but not all is impossible. Know how you might react and plan ahead of time to begin the healing process.
I know what it’s like to lose the love of my life for 40 years. I can confidently say that it was how I reacted to my shocking tragedy that made the difference. When tragedy strikes isn’t it always how we respond over the long term that counts? Will I be bitter and angry forever, or will I grow into a better human being with more compassion and kindness than ever before.

On April 22, 2014, was an exciting day for Dan and I. We picked up our brand new Tesla 2014 Model S. As you know, this car is very expensive. Almost a year had passed before we decided to purchase one. When it comes to supporting our values of buying American made products, supporting American ingenuity, American workers, sustainable energy movement, and a clean environment, money should not be an obstacle, especially when we could afford the price tag.

Many financial planning professionals are trying to scare people into “doing something” with your bonds. Ignore the warnings from the pundits on the financial news mania that you should now buy gold or precious metals. Even my favorite radio political pundit, former Senator Tom Harkin, warns people to buy gold. With all due respect, the former good Senator doesn’t know what he is talking about by telling people in his commercials to put all of their money in gold, because he has been predicting a stock market crash for over a year. That is despicable advice and he should stick to what he does best, discuss progressive ideas.
Be mindful that these articles and the pundits have an agenda. The articles are written by authors who usually work for a firm that happens to sell “what you need” and the reporters or radio hosts want views or website clicks. Scare tactics work every time, but not to readers here. Have a balanced plan with stocks and bonds approximately equal to your age. The post discusses in more detail why I have half of my portfolio in one bond fund, Vanguard’s Total Bond Market Index. I will NEVER buy gold!

Every time we offer one of these rare investment workshops, the workshop participants always comment that they want “more of the same.” Only two per year can be provided because of costs. UTLA and LAUSD do not fund these workshops. To their benefit, UTLA does provide the room, and Eva for paperwork and logistical support, and we thank UTLA for that support. On the other hand, LAUSD has rejected support for these workshops for years. We need to inform the Board of Education that financial literacy education is a significant benefit for their employees. If more employees knew of the district’s Award Winning 457(b) plan, more educators would save money for retirement and in the long term would save the district money.

On the evening of April 23, 2013, Dan and I watched at a Bed and Breakfast in Philadelphia the much-anticipated PBS Frontline “The Retirement Gamble”. We were in Philadelphia because we gave our presentation about our just released book, Late Bloomer Millionaires, to 100 Vanguard employees. We were part of Vanguard’s diversity outreach to hire LGBT employees. It was a very exiting time!

About

Steve Schullo is a retired Los Angeles Unified School District elementary teacher turned 403(b) reform advocate and author of two books. Steve is NOT a licensed finan­cial or invest­ment advi­sor, and the infor­ma­tion and expe­riences shared as a do-it-yourself investor con­tained herein is for infor­ma­tional pur­poses only and does not con­sti­tute finan­cial advice.

Through­out my blog, I share my expe­ri­ences with finances as an ordi­nary con­sumer, not as a pro­fes­sion­al. Do not start, change or mod­ify your port­fo­lio based on the infor­ma­tion in this blog alone. Any ideas, invest­ment strate­gies, links to fee-only pro­fes­sional advis­ers and par­tic­u­lar invest­ment com­pa­nies dis­cussed in any arti­cle or in my blog are a reflec­tion of my expe­ri­ences and should not be con­strued as a rec­om­men­da­tion. Always con­sult with a tax or finan­cial professional.